December 2023

McKenny Hawks Are Kind, Safe, Respectful and Responsible

December Up-Coming Events:

6 - Walk N Roll
8 - Kindergarten to the Hands on
Children’s Museum
12 - PTO Meeting in the Library at 6:30 p.m.
14 - Music Assembly (Grades 3-5) @ 12:45 p.m.
14 - School Board Meeting at 6:30 p.m. Knox Building or via Zoom
20 - Jan 2 - Winter Break - No School

Walk N Roll - December 6th

Our school hosts a Walk N Roll event one day each month. These are optional days that students can bike or walk to and from school, and once they arrive, can receive special prizes. Please wear helmets when riding, and make sure students are crossing roads safely. Walking or biking to school is not only amazing for your health, but it is also helpful to the environment!

Canned Food Drive

McKenny Hawks Help Out with the Olympia High School (OHS)
Donations are going to the Thurston County Food Bank! Donations can be dropped off outside of the McKenny Office through December 8th. Goal: 100,000 cans.
Questions please contact: [email protected]

Lost and Found

Lost and Found: We have quite a collection of coats and sweaters in our lost and found. Please take a moment before winter break to collect any items that belong to your child. It is always helpful to have your students' name on their clothing items, lunch boxes, backpacks, water bottles, etc. to ensure if items are misplaced they are returned.

News from the PTO

PTO Meeting

PTO Meeting Tuesday December 5th 6:30-8:00pm: Our next PTO meeting is on the FIRST Tuesday of the month! We invite you to connect with us for the monthly PTO meeting in the McKenny library or on Zoom. Come hear updates from Principal Havens and share your thoughts on how we can best support our students and staff. Stay tuned for an agenda in your email later this week.

Read-A-Thon

McKenny students worked so hard and did an awesome job of letting their imagination explore and they definitely read more. Students completed 44,782 minutes of reading which is 746 hours! The PTO would like to thank everyone who participated, together we raised $6,136 for our school, which will go to buying new books for the library, funding for the McKenny running club, as well as student access to online learning modules for ELA. Our winners were as follows: Humble Cow Gift Card-William B, Chick Fil A lunch-Owen B, Most Minutes Read (K-2nd) 1st Bria S, 2nd Claire G. Most Minutes Read (3rd-5th) 1st Kyra J, 2nd Odin C. Classroom most minutes read Mrs. Espedal-Johnson 4th/5th and classroom with most participation Mrs. Woods 1st grade with half the class participating!

McKenny PTO Website

We invite you to explore our freshly updated website at mckennypto.org! A place where you can easily access future event websites, tickets and information straight from our Calendar of Events, find links for Zoom PTO meetings, sign up to volunteer, contact members with questions or concerns and learn about who we are and what we do to enrich the lives of McKenny students.

Yearbook

Submit photos of this year's McKenny memories to the Yearbook Snap App. Please be sure to label your photos with names and events so they can be accurately represented in the yearbook! Also, please note that if your student was absent for individual student pictures or Retakes and you would like their photo to be included in the yearbook in their class section please submit a photo so we can ensure all students are represented. You can also upload those photos via Yearbook Snap App or online. Yearbook Snap icon

Available on the Google Play Store: Google Play Yearbook Snap or the Apple App Store: Apple App Yearbook Snap. The password for our school is McKenny2024.

Theater 2024-2025

Attention 3rd and 4th grade theater families. If you are interested in helping Chair next year’s theater education program, please email [email protected]. We will be meeting with Steven Wells of Pacific Northwest Theater Group in December to debrief Annie Jr. and discuss possible program dates, and what show they will be producing for our students, and we would love to hear what ideas McKenny families have to make next years performance memorable and fun for McKenny.

Want more information about the PTO?
Be sure to follow us on social media!
Instagram: @mckennyhawkspto
Facebook: facebook.com/mckennyhawkspto
Check out our website: www.mckennypto.org

News from the district

Olympia Schools Supportive Education Council

Do you have a student with disabilities receiving support through an IEP or 504 plan, or in any stage of the identification or evaluation process? Please join the Olympia Schools Supportive Education Council (OSSEC) throughout the school year for resources, community building, and a welcoming space to share ideas!

On January 17, 2024 at 6pm OSSEC will be hosting a zoom session with Amanda Diekman, author of “Low-Demand Parenting,” who states on her website, “I help exhausted parents of kids with challenging behaviors to drop demands and create calm so you can embrace your kids with radical acceptance.” We hope to see you there!

Please email [email protected] with any questions, follow us on Facebook, and join our email list here to get meeting reminders and zoom links.

Principals Corner

McKenny Families,

As we close out 2023, I wanted to use my space in this month’s Hawk Talk to reflect on some highlights of the school year so far.

Annie Jr: - A Huge thank you to our PTO for bringing in the Pacific Northwest Theater Company to work with our students to put on an amazing musical performance. This opportunity was made available to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students, tuition free, due to a generous grant from the Ocean Spray Company. But grants don’t just fall into our laps. They take time and effort to seek out and complete the application process. Thank you to Collette Paulson for securing the funding to make this happen. Also, thank you to all parents who donated their time and talents to support the experience through help with supervision, concessions, ticket sales and set up. The students were amazing and I know the experience has sparked a lot of interest in future theater opportunities.

The Return of the Golden Hawk: We have decided to reinstitute a weekly recognition program called Golden Hawk. In short, every student will have an opportunity to be recognized at school in the classroom with a Golden Hawk Award. On Fridays, I go into each classroom to talk about an individual student and all of the qualities that make them special. All students can show Golden Hawk characteristics by being Kind, being Safe, and showing Responsibility in a variety of ways. We also work to highlight individual skills and personality traits that students show both in and out of school. It is a wonderful program which supports a positive, welcoming environment and celebrates students’ individuality.

Other Highlights Include: Trunk or Treat, Read-a-thon, the Veterans Day Assembly put on by our friends from WMS, assemblies, and Field Trips!

These are all wonderful events and activities. However, my favorite things happen every day. The students cause me to smile and laugh regularly with their kind words and their funny comments. What a joy it is to be a part of this community. Thank you for sharing your children with us each day.

Sincerely,

Michael Havens